January 23rd

Picture-A-Day:

Today was a bit rough.
It felt like one of those "full moon" days.
The kids were crazy. CRAZY!
Not listening, whining, crying, fighting.
I napped for about a half hour, then my coughing woke me up.
Then the kids woke up about 20 minutes after that.
It kinda ruined the rest of the day for me.

I really try to take Sunday's "off." It's hard, since my job is being a mom. I can't stop being a mom on Sunday's. But a big part of my job is maintaining the household - cleaning, cooking, shopping, paying bills, etc. I try to do as little work as I possibly can on Sunday's, which means, I ONLY take care of the kids, and ONLY what is absolutely necessary. I don't cook - we have leftovers, or cereal or fruit, or popcorn - easy things like that. The ones that are old enough get to "fend for themselves." I usually don't do baths, and I say "no" to them a lot, saying "It's mommy's day to rest, and I'm not going to do that today." I try really hard not to do any cleaning, but that gets tricky. By the end of the day, the house is usually such a disaster that I can't even walk through it. Then I start getting all stressed and frustrated, then I start picking things up just to get them out of my way. Then I want to make coffee for the morning, but I need to wipe the counter, but then I need to clear the dishes off the counter... and pretty soon I find myself cleaning the kitchen. Or just so stressed at the end of the day, that I might have been better off NOT to try to rest. Every Sunday isn't like that, but today was. Then at bedtime we had a couple of meltdowns. Putting the kids to bed early turned into having a long heart-to-heart, and some prayers. And not going to bed early.

This picture was one bright moment in my day. When I went over to them with the camera, they posed, but they were just sitting there, at the bottom of the stairs, hanging out together. It was cute. You'll notice we have a little artist in the making. Someday when she's famous, we'll say "she used to drive us crazy with her coloring all over everything - walls, books, furniture, clothes..."